Breaking the mask
by arwenae
Summary: The Seigaku Regulars discover a hidden part of Tezuka-Buchou's past. If I have misspelt any names/Japanese words I am very, very sorry. Some of them seem to have multiple spellings.
1. Chapter 1

End-of term exams were looming ominously over Seishun Gakuen. This was marked by a very noticeable downturn in the number of attendees to after school tennis practices. The regulars still made each and every practice, of course, as did any third-year who shared classes with Tezuka-Buchou – it was something in the way he looked at you if you hadn't come the night before that made you never want to be so much as late ever again. Oishi-Fukubuchou was more understanding.

"It's only natural, Buchou." He remarked after a particularly ill-attended session. "Most people are terrified of failing these exams and having to sit the make-ups, and tennis practice takes up a lot of revision time."

"To succeed takes a lot of commitment to your goal. You know that as well as any of us Oishi." Tezuka shuffled some club reports into some semblance of order as he waited for his vice-captain to reply.

Oishi shuffled his feet nervously. "Well, yes, alright, but you've got to admit that it can be difficult sometimes, particularly for those who aren't so, ah…gifted academically. I mean…um…"

"Don't be ridiculous Oishi." Tezuka flicked his head impatiently. "You know perfectly well that you'll pass with flying colours, like you have done every term for more than two years now."

Oishi blushed. It was true; he never did seem to have trouble in the end of term tests, a feat owing less to innate talent in all subjects than to real dedication and a rigorous study schedule. "Well, ah… I suppose I…that is…" he stammered.

Tezuka abandoned all pretence of studying a list of tennis club members and swivelled round in his chair. "Is there something you're trying to tell me, Oishi?"

His vice-captain squirmed under Tezuka's penetrating gaze. It was strange, considering that he only ever appeared serious, how much Tezuka could express through his eyes alone. "Well, the thing is, um, um…ah..." He slumped into an attitude of defeat. "My mum… she doesn't think my studying can cope with the extra meetings and stuff I have to do as vice-captain. She, uh…she wants me to stop during the exam season…" He hung his head and waited for the captain's verdict.

Tezuka was silent just long enough to make it uncomfortable, then: "You want to quit as vice-captain?"

"No!" Oishi's head jerked up in shock. "No, no, it's just the meetings are tricky…"

"If you continue as vice-captain you come to the club meetings. It's as simple as that." Tezuka's tone offered no possibility of argument.

Oishi appeared absolutely wretched. "Well, ye-es, and I would, I really would, only… my mum isn't going to let this drop, you know? She's really serious about this."

"And are you serious about Seigaku?"

"Of course!"

"Well, then, if you want to honour your duties as vice-captain, we will simply have to find another way to meet."

And so, after some discussion and a few phone calls, it was agreed that the meetings between captain and vice-captain would be held at the homes of other regular members of the tennis club, under cover of a study session to help each other out with the exams ahead.


	2. Chapter 2

"Taka-san says it'll be ok." Oishi called over. "His mum's going out on Thursday, so we can have the run of the house for most of the evening."

"Good. That's sorted then" said Tezuka.

"Shall I call the other regulars to let them know?"

"Yes, thank you. Not Echizen, of course." Tezuka commented. "Since his exams will be different to everyone else's, it's best if he makes his own arrangements."

"Of course, Buchou." Oishi was so relieved that he hadn't been made to quit as vice-captain that he would have agreed to anything Tezuka said at that point.

"I see no reason why the second-years can't come, though, as long as they behave themselves."

"Yes Buchou."

"Also, that would give us more possible homes to go to, so that we won't impose on one or two families too much."

"That seems fair."

"And of course, we can't really stop Kaidoh from bringing the anteater."

"I suppose not." The vice-captain paused. His brow furrowed. "What?"

"I didn't think you were listening properly. Go on home, I'll finish up here. You clearly need a break." There was the faintest trace of amusement discernible in Tezuka's voice.

"Yes Buchou. Sorry Buchou." Oishi cleared up his stuff and left, blushing furiously, but still slightly lightheaded with relief. That meeting could have gone a lot worse.

And so it came to be that at 5.30 on that Thursday, the second and third-year regulars of Seigaku were to be seen loaded down with books and stationery, staggering up the driveway of the Kawamura family's home. "Welcome! Welcome!" their host repeated, as he showed each guest into the main living room. Two low tables had been set out, surrounded with cushions and complete with drinks and snacks. "I, uh, heard that it was healthy to snack regularly while revising." Taka-san explained with a smile.

"Thank you, Taka-san!" Kikumaru Eiji, as overexcited as ever, bounced up to Kawamura and hugged him enthusiastically round the neck. Since Taka-san was quite a lot taller, Eiji was effectively using his neck as a swing, nearly pulling his sempai to the floor.

"Come on Eiji; be gentle to Taka-san." Oishi smiled at his doubles partner. "Come sit down, now."

"Alright, everyone," said Tezuka, once the team had all assembled. "Oishi and I are going to work on tennis club things for a little while first. I'd suggest that the rest of you get into twos or threes to study and we can switch partners once we two are done with the club affairs. Is everyone ok with that?" Everyone was, so Tezuka and Oishi took their tennis club work into a corner whilst everybody else arranged themselves into groups.

"Uwaah! I need Oishi-sempai to help me with my English!" moaned Kikumaru. "I'm gonna totally fail!"

"You're not going to get far if you keep writing all the bs as ds, idiot." Kaidoh was looking over Eiji's shoulder at his English book. "Come here, I'll sort you out."

"Hey, Taka-san. Want to study chemistry with me?"

"Uh, sure thing Inui."

"Guess that leaves you and me, Momo." Smiled Fuji Syusuke, "You want any help with your classics paper?"

"Thanks, Fuji-sempai." Replied Momoshiro, gratefully. "I'm going to need all the help I can get with that one."

"No problem." Fuji grinned, "We can't have you distracted by make-up exams so close to the summer tournaments, can we?"

"So you will give the director that request for the new balls, and I will organise the lunchtime training rota to fit with all those revision classes that we've been informed exist. Right! That seems to be all for now, Oishi." After about twenty minutes, the leadership meeting finally drew to a close. "Let's go and join the others."

"Yes, Tezuka-buchou."

The two boys walked over to where Kawamura and Inui were working. "Mind if we join you? Oishi could probably use some of your help with his Maths, Taka-san."

"Of course, Buchou." Kawamura shifted along the table so that Oishi and Tezuka could come between him and Inui.

"And, Inui, would you mind looking over those equations for me?"

"No problem. You're getting better at it, you know." Inui commented as he scanned Tezuka's maths book. "But I keep telling you, you have to multiply everything in the brackets. And you keep making the same mistakes with the powers."

"Equations?" whispered Momoshiro to Fuji, suddenly curious.

Fuji smiled at the question. "Yeah, Tezuka has a bit of a blind spot for that sort of algebra. We've tried to explain the stuff to him, but it just doesn't seem to click."

"You're kidding." Momoshiro found it difficult to believe that the seemingly infallible Tezuka-buchou could struggle with anything, let alone something that Momo found to be second nature by now.

"Yeah. He survives Maths exams because he's absolutely brilliant at the other stuff. And I do mean brilliant. Trigonometry, angles, probability calculations, anything like that and I swear he's better than our sensei. He can make the numbers dance for him, don't ask me how. But show him a little row of figures with an x or two thrown in and somehow it all grinds to a halt."

"No way." Momo realised that he was over-reacting. After all, everyone must have something they couldn't do, right? Still, it gave him a little thrill inside to realise that he could actually do better than the great Tezuka at something. Suppressing his desire to do a little internal gloating, he shrugged and returned to the complexities of the classical mind.

"Uh-uh Tezuka-kun. Two squares make power four, not three. It would be three if you just multiplied it by x on its own."

"Mmm…ok…so x equals seven, then?"

"What? No! x should be four! Let me see that…what the heck?"

And so it continued until everyone began to feel the strain of revision. It seemed to Momoshiro that the characters were floating about an inch off the page of his classics text. Inui was getting more and more snappish as he struggled to get Tezuka through a page of exercises. And Kikumaru's novelty fish rubber thudded into the back of Oishi-fukubuchou's head. "Hey!" Oishi span around in annoyance. "Eiji! That really hurt!" he snapped at his unexpected assailant.

"Sorry Oishi-kun! I wanted to see how hard it would bounce back." Kikumaru grinned nervously at Oishi's frown, and then slumped down almost below table level. "Augh! I'm sick of studying! I think my brain's started to leak."

"I suppose now would be a good time to call a break," said Tezuka, raising his head from a thick textbook. His hair was more tousled than usual and rucked up at the back after more than an hour and a half of Inui's painstaking explanations. "I doubt that many of us can concentrate much longer like this."

"Yes indeed." Inui looked up too. "Statistics show that it is actually better for study effectiveness, and for general health, to take regular breaks. About two hours study time is considered to be the limit of the average concentration span. I'm actually surprised that Kikumaru-kun survived this long."

"Hey!" out of rubbers, Kikumaru hurled his pencil in Inui's direction. His sempai caught it seemingly without effort and with an irritatingly smug expression.

"H-hey guys don't let's fight. I know! Why don't we watch a film to relax?" Kawamura's idea was met with general assent from the team. "Alright then;" he continued, "I'll wash up the cups and plates and stuff while you guys pick something. All the videos are in that cupboard there" he gestured at a large corner unit, "and the DVDs are under the TV. Go ahead and start without me- I've seen them all at least once anyway."

"I'll help you clear up, Taka-san" offered Tezuka.

"Th-thanks Buchou. That would be great."

The two boys collected up the assorted cups and plates and left the room. The rest of the group congregated around the cupboard and the television.

"Hey, I am impressed!" Momoshiro admitted. "Taka-san has an excellent collection."

"I think he's a bit of a movie buff on the quiet," smiled Oishi, surveying the cliff-face of videotapes facing him. "Hey, Eiji! What are you doing? This is someone else's house, you know!"

Kikumaru, using a chair to provide a step up, was clambering over the front piles of tapes to the columns behind. "People always put the good stuff at the back, you know Oishi-sempai. You just need to look."

"You should be careful, Eiji-kun" Inui chipped in. "you could bring the whole lot down in a rush."

"Don't be such wet blankets! I do this sort of thing all the time. I have great balance!" Kikumaru grinned again, then his head disappeared from view behind the videotapes. "Oh." He sounded disappointed. "This is no good, this is mostly home videos back here. Those are only good if you can embarrass someone with them... I guess I should just- wait a sec! Oh, cool! Cool beyond cool! I take back the stuff about home videos, Oishi- this has to be worth a watch! Hang on…" With much more squirming, puffing and wobbling than the way up, Kikumaru descended the wall of videos. By this time everyone was interested, and they all gathered around to see what had excited their teammate so much. Wordlessly, he handed the tape to Fuji. It was clearly several years old, still in its cardboard sheath, which had become severely foxed at the corners. Fuji read the label. A smile slowly spread across his face. "Cool." In neat, precise handwriting, the label read:

"_Tezuka.K. Sixth birthday party_."

Oishi frowned. "Well, I don't know… do you think we should? I mean…" but they could all see that he was tempted. The tape somehow held all of their gazes with an almost hypnotic power.

"Oh, please, please, Oishi!" Kikumaru begged, throwing himself at Oishi's feet and gripping his ankles in an impressive demonstration of abject grovelling. "Please, please, please, please, please, please, pl-"

"Well- I suppose it can't do any actual harm…" said Oishi, slowly. "Please get off, Eiji-kun."

"Thank you thank you, thank you sempai!" Kikumaru was ecstatic. "I bet he was oh-so-kawaiii when he was teeny! Put it in, Fuji-sempai, quickly!" Smiling at the younger boy's excitement, Fuji slipped the tape into the player. The regulars swiftly pulled up cushions and sat around in attitudes of keen anticipation. As they watched, a smiling Fuji teasingly adjusted his own cushion. Leaned forwards. Pressed play…


	3. Chapter 3

Please forgive me if I make any of the characters appear ooc in any part of this story. I have tried, but sometimes the story has a mind of its own. If you think I've messed up a character, please review and tell me, and I'll try and do better. Thanks.

The screen flickered into life, to show a slightly grainy image of a large garden. Various small children ran to and fro with much giggling and shouting. One small girl clutching skipping rope made a dash towards the camera and disappeared below shot. The camera swivelled downwards. "Hello Hana-chan!" said the camerawoman. "Are you having fun?" The girl grinned and nodded vigorously, making her pigtails bounce on her shoulders.

Fuji began to giggle. "What is it, sempai?" Kikumaru wanted to know.

"It's Suzuki Hanako-san from our year." Fuji explained. "You know, the one with about fifty piercings and the barely legal hair?"

"Oh. My Gosh. You're right, Fuji." Oishi leaned in closer to the screen, rapidly forgetting that he was supposed to be uncomfortable with watching this. He started to laugh too. "She's so completely twee!"

The video had rolled on, and now showed a long table filled with party food. Most of the children who had been running around were now sitting around it, making even more noise, if that were possible. "Say hi, Yuki-chan, Daichi-kun, Hana-chan, Aoi-kun, Taka-kun…"

"Eeee! It's Taka-san!" Kikumaru, Momoshiro, Oishi and Fuji snorted with laughter. Inui smiled. Kaidoh was pretending not to be as amused as everyone else. "What happened to his hair?"

Further discussion of Kawamura's interesting-to-say-the-least hairdo was suddenly cut short as the camerawoman announced: "And here's the birthday boy! Smile for the camera, Kunimitsu!"

Kikumaru gave a little sigh of happiness. It was everything he had hoped. Momoshiro snorted with laughter. "It's chibi Tezuka!" It was. The little boy sitting at the head of the table was incredibly cute, with that cherubic cuteness that children seem to lose so quickly once they approach the age of about ten, and some never have to begin with; yet he was instantly recognisable as their captain. His face had already become set in his habitual expression of seriousness, and he frowned slightly at the camera.

"Mother…"

"Oh, go on, Kuni-kun." pleaded his mother from behind the camera. "One little smile? For me?" Tezuka shook his head and folded his arms defiantly. The camera dipped a little as his mother sighed- the team guessed that this was a regular argument. "Your guests will think you're not enjoying yourself."

"They're having fun." The background noise confirmed Tezuka's retort. "What does it matter if I'm smiling or not?"

At this point, his mother seemed to give up.

I also apologise for the short length of this chapter. I thought it might be better to have frequent short chapters than slightly longer ones with huge waits in between whilst I write them.


	4. Chapter 4

_I had more stuff that I could have added here, but didn't make the final cut, because I thought the scene would just have been too long. I miss it, though…Maybe I'll do a deleted scenes sometime, if this story turns out to be popular. All comments and tips appreciated._

The screen flickered, suggesting that the camera had been turned off, then on again. Now the scene showed a side gate from the garden side. "Look who's here!" trilled the camerawoman. A smiling brunette, not more than fourteen, waved cheerfully from her position in front of a large brown suitcase. "Still in school uniform?" teased Mrs Tezuka, "Did you come straight from class?"

The girl's smile grew even wider. "Well, I couldn't miss this, could I?" she replied, laughingly. She flicked her hair out of her eyes and gazed around. "Where is the birthday boy, anyway?"

Tezuka's mother didn't get a chance to respond as a joyful shout from out of shot answered the question for her.

"Kisa-Chaaaan!" what appeared to be a small brown-haired bullet barrelled into the girl, knocking her backwards over her suitcase. The camera zoomed in, wobbling slightly as its bearer laughed at the giggling heap that the two figures had become. The giggling seemed to emanate from the girl presumably called Kisa, much to the watching regulars' relief- they felt that a laughing Tezuka would somehow unbalance the world. The small boy- and, yes, it was Tezuka- seemed to be clinging to the girl's waist like grim death.

Thus entwined, the two struggled into a marginally more dignified position. It was at this point that Tezuka raised his face from its position in the folds of the girl's uniform and began to chatter excitedly. "We haven't done the cake yet, 'cause I knew you'd be coming, and I wanted you to see it. They won't let me see it before time, but everyone says that it's better than last year, and you really liked last year's so I wanted you to see this one when it was all lit up, because they always make me cut it up so soon, and, and… and I really missed you, and please, please can you stay longer this time, Kisa-Chan?" He gazed up at her, his eyes pleading. The girl laughed again and bent to kiss his upturned forehead.

"You know I can't stay longer than tomorrow morning, Kuni. I have school. You wouldn't want me to fail this year, now would you?"

The young boy shook his head violently, as if in an agony of indecision. "N-no, of course I don't. B-but I…"

'Kisa' seemed to take pity on the confused boy. She gathered him up in her arms and held him close. "I'll make it up to you in the summer break, 'kay?" she whispered. "We can go down to Nana's and I'll teach you how to drop shot, yeah?" Tezuka brightened up immediately.

"Yes, yes, yes please Kisa-Chan! You promise? Will I be able to do it like you then?" He was bouncing up and down in her grasp with excitement.

She giggled as she let him go. "Not yet, I don't think. You're still a bit of a midget."

"Hey!" He punched her on the knee.

"Ouch! Ask me again when you've got some height to go with the power, okay squirt? Hey." She glanced up. "Can you move the camera now? It's embarrassing me."

As the image on screen changed once more, Kikumaru straightened up. "Hey, Fuji-Sempai, pause it a moment wilya?" Fuji complied.

"Sheesh, what gives now?" moaned Kaidoh.

"I just wanna get a better look at her." Kikumaru explained, with the annoying manner of those who take every passing whim as if it were a matter of life or death. "I mean, c'mon… don't tell me none of you want to know who she is if she can get Tezuka- Buchou all heated up!"

There was a brief pause as the other regulars considered. Most of them had to admit to themselves that they were curious too- even given the time that had passed since the recording of the video, none of them had ever seen the captain behave in a manner even half as undignified, and for that matter, couldn't even imagine it of the current Tezuka if they tried. But none of them wished to be first to admit this. Finally, Inui cleared his throat. "Personally," he began, cautiously. "I would be very interested to meet her. If she did teach Tezuka tennis skills such as the drop shot, she could be an invaluable source of data."

"Yay! See, Fuji-Sempai, Inui- Sempai wants to know who she is too!" Kikumaru was bouncing up and down in his keenness. Fuji sighed, before reaching for the video player again, this time with almost-certainly-ironic slowness as the younger boy seethed with excited impatience "Go on, rewind a bit. That's it…now freeze it there." The image of the laughing girl now filled most of the screen. "I've never seen her around, I'm sure. How about you, Fuji-sempai?"

Fuji just shrugged. "Not ringing any bells. Inui?"

Seigaku's data man leaned closer. "The line of the chin and the bone structure around the eyes give a seventy-eight percent chance that she's a relative of Tezuka-buchou, but beyond that I really can't-"

SMASH!

As one, the group clustered around the television spun round at the sudden noise. Tezuka-Buchou stood framed in the doorway, the shattered remains of the glass he had been holding littering the floor about his feet. He had frozen in the act of drying it, the cloth still in his hand, and his eyes were fixed on the screen. With a sickening lurch, the team realised that, for the first time since any of them had known Tezuka, those eyes were completely and utterly blank.


	5. Chapter 5

**I know its slow going. I'm sorry! I also know you want more than this, but I figured, better a little like this than nothing, right?**

"Buchou? What's going on?" Kawamura called out as he made his way to the source of the noise.

Tezuka blinked. Looked down. "Sorry Taka-San. I'll clear this up." He pivoted neatly on his heel, and walked out of the room, not even casting a glance the group frozen around the television. Kawamura came up to the doorway, looking confused. Then he spotted the still- wavering television picture and his brow cleared, before assuming a worried expression.

"Ah." He frowned. "Turn it off, will you someone?" Fuji complied. Other than that, no-one around the television moved a muscle. They had the horrible sense of having done something a lot worse than they thought they had been doing at the time. Taka-San looked torn for a moment, and then waved vaguely at the group of regulars, saying, somewhat unnecessarily, "Don't move, okay?" He turned and hurried in the direction that Tezuka had gone.

The regulars were still obeying Kawamura's instruction to the letter when he returned with a dustpan and brush to tidy up the mess of glass. He glanced up at them and smiled at their petrified expressions. "Tezuka-Buchou's just finishing off the washing up in the kitchen." he explained.

"Did we do something bad, Sempai?" quavered Kikumaru, breaking the silence at last, only for it to be followed by an even more painful pause. Finally, Taka-San took a deep breath and replied, his face grim.

"Yes. Yes you did. But it was probably my fault. I didn't even realise we still had that video." Kikumaru had the good grace to look embarrassed. "Don't worry too much, though," and to the group's relief, Kawamura smiled again, even if it did look rather forced. "I know it was an accident, and I'm sure nothing too bad will come of it." He finished brushing up as much glass as he could find and straightened up. "That should do it. Just, uh, be careful around the doorway for now, okay? Then I can go over again with the vacuum cleaner when you guys have gone." He gave them another lop-sided smile and wandered back kitchenwards.

Kaidoh let out his breath in a long hiss. "You're an idiot, Kikumaru."

"Hey!" Eiji was indignant. "Like you didn't want to watch it too! Any of you lot could have said no, and I'd have put it right back, honestly!"

"Yeah, right;" Kaidoh's voice became a mocking mimic of Eiji's. "Please, please Oishi-Sempai! Please, please, please, please, pl-"

"Shut it, you two!" Momoshiro cuffed Kaidoh around the ear to silence him, cutting short the resultant retribution with an urgent gesturing towards the doorway. In the silence that followed, the rest of the team became aware of the approaching footsteps and very quickly became extremely interested in other things, ranging from the cover of a randomly-snatched DVD ( Momoshiro), to an apparently fascinating crumb of something on the carpet ( Eiji, naturally).

Tezuka and Kawamura entered together in silence. The rest of the group continued very carefully not looking in their direction. Finally, Kawamura spoke. "So, do you guys see anything that we could watch?" Another awkward pause ensued. Then Momo spoke up.

"This looks like it could be kind of fun." He gestured vaguely with the DVD that he had picked up. Kawamura stepped closer to see what he was looking at.

"Oh, Indiana Jones. Yeah, that's quite fun if you don't mind the odd bit of terrible acting. We should probably watch it in the dubbed version, though, for Kikumaru-Kun's sake."

The notorious hater of subtitled films grinned weakly in acknowledgement. "Thanks, Sempai."

"That okay with you, Kaidoh?" Kawamura asked, addressing the only other member of the group to be holding a film, although he couldn't make out what it was from where he stood.

"Yup." Kaidoh didn't even glance up.

"That's good then. Stick it on, Fuji."

As Fuji obeyed, Kaidoh let out his breath in a slow hiss of relief. He was pretty sure it would have killed him to have to reveal that he was in fact holding a video called "Mrs Bumble's Busy Day."


End file.
